Raymond retains overall title at Tri-District track meet

Raymond retains overall title at Tri-District track meet

(Aaron Lavinsky | The Daily World) Willapa Valley's Matt Konigsberger competes in the javelin competition at Thursday's Tri-District Track meet in South Bend. Konigsberger won the competition by throwing a 142-11.

Raymond retains overall title at Tri-District track meet

(Aaron Lavinsky | The Daily World) Willapa Valley's Matt Konigsberger, left, runs the 100-meter dash at the Tri-District Track Meet in South Bend on Thursday. Konigsberger won the race by posting a time of 11.70.

By Rob BurnsThe Daily World

SOUTH BEND — Raymond’s depth on its boys team, along with some key performances from its girls, allowed it to walk away with the Henrie-Weisel Tri-District trophy for the third straight year.

The Gulls overpowered their rivals South Bend and Willapa Valley in the boys competition, while Willapa Valley edged out Raymond, 65-50, in the girls portion of the Tri-District Meet at Don Weisel Oval in South Bend on Thursday.

Overall, Raymond amassed 142 1/2 points to retain the Henrie-Weisel Trophy, named in memory of longtime Willapa Harbor track coaches Jim Henrie and Don Weisel. The trophy goes to the school with the highest combined co-ed total.

“There’s a little more on the line in this (meet),” Raymond head coach Mike Tully said. “I told the kids the other day that this is the one regular season meet that I get excited for, get up for and want them to do well in. You always want to do well, but when you are at a rivalry meet and the trophy is on the line, you always give it that little bit of extra (effort).”

The weather wasn’t conducive to big time or distance performances on Thursday, but there were enough close finishes to give the hearty fans who came out something to cheer for. In fact, the three closest races came in the girls meet.

In the girls’ 100-meter hurdles, it started as a three-girl race — Willapa Valley’s Karli and Lauren Friese and Raymond’s Patricia Rojas — but ended as a showdown. Lauren Friese was disqualified for a false start, then Karli Friese kept Rojas on her back hip all the way down the front straightaway for the win by three-tenths of a second at 18.40.

Lauren Friese made up for the DQ by blowing through the small field in the 300 low hurdles later in the meet. She won the pole vault earlier in the day.

Later on, Raymond’s Hannah Dykes got into a showdown race with Willapa Valley freshman Abby Hodel and held her off for the win in the 100-meter sprint. Dykes also won the long jump and triple jump field events for the Gulls.

Valley’s Jessica Cook came away with the finishing kick of the meet when she erased a 6-meter deficit to South Bend’s Ashley Pearson and passed her with 70 meters left for an 800m victory.

“Jessica ran a great race and Abby has a lot of potential; she’s going to be a good one,” Willapa Valley head coach Dave Ege said. “I think (in the 100m hurdles), that was the first time Lauren has ever false-started. It happens sometimes.

“The girls did a great job,” Ege said. “This was a good test for them against South Bend and Raymond. Those are two pretty good teams. We had some kids in events they normally didn’t run in order to score some more points. We even broke up a relay and scored 13 more points.”

South Bend’s Emily Sanchez gave the home crowd a few highlights by winning the 200 and 400m sprints easily. Tribe head coach Steve Lazelle cited Sanchez, along with Kathryn Staats, who won the shot put, for their performances.

Other two-event winners in the girls meet were Valley’s Dominique Kudasik, who cruised in the 1,600 and 3,200m runs; and Valley’s Kate Rockett in the shot put and the javelin.

The boys meet was nearly an all-Raymond affair. The Gulls swamped every event with competitors and won nine events. The seven non-Raymond wins came from three competitors — Valley’s Matt Konigsberger and Trevor Cook and South Bend’s Dennis Johnson.

Cook started the day by winning the pole vault for the Vikings.

Konigsberger, free from any obligation on any of the Viking relay teams, won four events — the 100, 200 and 400m sprints and the javelin — to earn unofficial individual high point scorer honors. The senior is the reigning state 2B javelin champion and he finished the day scoring 20 of Valley’s 29 1/2 team points.

“That’s a good day for him,” Ege added.

Johnson wasn’t fazed by the weather at all in the long and triple jumps, winning both events easily — by 1 1/2 feet in the long jump and 3 3/4 feet in the triple jump. Johnson, along with Jose Bucio, who finished second in three events, were cited by Lazelle.

Raymond’s depth allowed several runners and field athletes to score wins with just one coming away with a double-win day — Alex Vaca in the 800m and 1,600m runs. All told, it was more than enough to win the boys meet and provide the foundation to securing the overall team title.

“I thought the kids did really well, despite the weather,” Tully said. “I thought we had some good performances, some good marks on the day. And, that’s good to see, especially on a cold, wet day. You want to see them perform well and they did.”

Tully cited Terry Broten, Vaca and Dykes for their performances.

On Thursday, Raymond, South Bend and Willapa Valley return to action in a Pacific League 2B meet at Raymond.

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